International

Just the Facts: US Military Interventions

Envío team

The US population has a strong self-image of charity toward those "less fortunate," both at home and abroad. Many, as a result, cannot comprehend the common use in the Third World of the term imperialist to describe the United States, or the frequency with which the slogan "Yankee Go Home" is written on walls all over Latin America. Equally incomprehensible, it would appear, is the response of many Latin American nations to the current US military invasion of Panama. Their demands for non-intervention, for the recognition of sovereignty and self-determination, fall on the deaf ears of those in the United States proud of their government's role as "policeman" of the region—a self-appointed role consecrated in the Monroe Doctrine of 1922 and carried out unilaterally ever since.

We list below the nearly 100 US military interventions in and occupations of Latin American countries since 1798. The list does not include US-sponsored military coups such as in Guatemala in 1954; destabilization efforts such as those the US implemented in Chile in 1970-73; or US-financed wars by local allies such as that fought in Nicaragua for the past eight years.

Mexico: 1806, 1814-25, 1836, 1842, 1844, 1846-48, 1859, 1866, 1870, 1873, 1876, 1913, 1914-17, 1918-19.

Cuba: 1814-25, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1898-99, 1906-09, 1912, 1917-33, 1933, 1956-58, 1961, 1962.

Dominican Republic: 1798-1800, 1814-1825, 1903, 1904, 1914, 1916-24, 1961, 1964, 1965.

Haiti: 1888, 1891, 1914, 1915-34, 1957.

Puerto Rico: 1814-25, 1898-99.

Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad, Bermuda, St. Lucia, Bahamas: 1940

Grenada: 1983.

Guatemala: 1920, 1962

Honduras: 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, 1925.

Nicaragua: 1853, 1854, 1857, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1910, 1912-25, 1926-33.

Costa Rica: 1921

Panama: 1856, 1865, 1885, 1903-14, 1918-20, 1921, 1925, 1959, 1964, 1989

Colombia: 1860, 1868, 1873, 1895, 1901, 1902.

Brazil: 1894

Peru: 1835-36.

Paraguay: 1859

Chile: 1891

Uruguay: 1855, 1858, 1868

Argentina: 1831-32, 1833, 1852-53, 1890.

Source: U.S. Congressional Record, Senate. June 23, 1969 and September 10, 1969, updated by envío.

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